CT Liotta
@ctliotta.com
🏳️🌈 Writer, cynic, traveler. Hawaii drivers license. Repped by Uwe Stender of Triada US Literary. Vitals: https://beacons.ai/ctliotta
Accusations of plagiarism or AI use must be supported by a preponderance of credible evidence, not vibes & em-dashes. The burden of proof rests with the person making the accusation. THE BURDEN OF PROVING INNOCENCE DOES NOT REST WITH THE AUTHOR. This standard must apply equally to all writers.
I don't often think I'm subject to "mentality of scarcity vs. mentality of abundance" dichotomies, but when I go to a diner and there are two of each color sugar packets vs. when I go to a diner and the packets are stuffed into the caddy by the fistful, I feel a certain way.
Every time I watch "In the Mood for Love," I'm reminded how beautiful the whole thing is.
In The Mood For Love: Tony Leung & Maggie Cheung Pining
ALT: In The Mood For Love: Tony Leung & Maggie Cheung Pining
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Remember when Teddy Kennedy drove his car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick & didn't report it for 10 hours and the woman in the passenger seat drowned? THAT, friends, was controversy! Not that Hank Green uses AI. Still, people are like "call the cops! Dude is using ChatGPT!" ...the frick outta here.
What keeps me up at night isn’t Hank Green using ChatGPT for research or a writer using it to write slop. I worry about where AI intersects with military power, surveillance, & political manipulation. We're in a geopolitical AI arms race, and it isn't because someone used it to design a flyer.
Maybe I'm just old, but I'm more upset with the DOJs admission that the whole reflecting pool thing was their fault all along even though they dragged David Hearn through the shit than I am about whether Hank Green used ChatGPT.
When asked for a piece of trivia about myself, I sometimes say "I'm inoculated against smallpox," which is true. Lately, though, people younger than me don't find that odd - like, in their head, I'm conceivably old enough that smallpox was a problem when I was born. Bitch.
Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.
Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia
ALT: Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia
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Dave Carlson@davecarlson.bsky.social · 6d agoFilm you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.
I just paid for a $1500 auto repair with a debit card to avoid a 3% credit card surcharge. Everyone is doing this now -esp. small business - and I understand why. However, it's really changing the value proposition of rewards credit cards - esp. with high annual fees.
The manuscript I wrote that's soon going on sub scored a 100% human on Pangram for anyone keeping score. I'd like a cookie, please. Peanut Butter. With the Hershey kiss in the middle. Snickerdoodles work too.
I'm not an expert on the literary market, but I note what people read in the wild. It seems to be Romantacy/fantasy, "women telling their stories" books, or gay books written by women. YA has sort of flatlined & trended away from marginalized people stories. Am I wrong? #amwriting #writingcommunity
For a few extra bucks I used to do content writing. 10 best wines and whatnot. Now, it's all #AI slop. But to be fair, it was always slop, clogging the arteries of the Internet with bilge. Only, now nobody's paid for its generation, which is somehow more offensive to me. #amwriting #writingcommunity
By trade I'm an optometrist. 10 yrs ago I was in a class. Colleagues were panicked about online opticals selling "bad" glasses for $20 - it stood to destroy their livelihoods. "The problem isn't that they're bad," I said, "but that they're good enough for most people." #writingcommunity #amwriting
I initially wrote my manuscript in second person as a hat tip to Jay McInerney. The story's set in '87. Then, I realized it served the narrative. Maybe it works b/c we're in a social media culture of "I, I, I, Me, Me, Me," so I gave in and said, "Fine. You." #amwriting #writingcommunity
The manuscript I queried that got me representation is written - I kid you not - in second person. I knew I had the right agent when we were on a call, both of us saying "This is really good, but I don't know how we're going to sell it. Or even what genre it is." #amwriting #writingcommunity
Catastrophic flooding in my hometown of Buckhannon, WV. I hope everyone stays safe, especially those on the floodplain.
The greatest lesson I learned about #publishing is that you can write a clever, funny, engaging manuscript that simply has no audience. I really love my first novel, but agents were right to be skeptical: there just wasn't a broad commercial audience for it. #amwriting #writingcommunity
I'm excited to sign with a literary agency, but saying "at age 49, I finally signed with an agent after trying my whole life" is mistaken. My take is, "at age 49 I wrote a story that might have commercial appeal and be a fit for the mainstream market." *Might.* #amwriting #writingcommunity
Making some last-minute edits to a manuscript for my agent. We had a conversation: it doesn't fit neatly into a genre and faces headwinds. I hope it succeeds, but my soul is prepared for the alternative. Simply getting to this point has been fun, no matter the outcome. #amwriting #writingcommunity
A good day in the life of CT: I am now officially represented by Uwe Stender at Triada US! THE MAYOR OF SHANTYTOWN, my novel about a gay kid white-knuckling his way through senior week in Ocean City, Maryland, in 1987 will soon be going on sub. Looking forward to working with Uwe and #TeamTriada
I just unpublished three early works. They were fine and people liked them, but they weren't serving me well anymore, and my writing has progressed. Maybe I'll tinker with them in the future and then republish them. Who knows? Time for other things.
There's a disconnect between how much creatives hate AI on social media, and how many teens are creating AI animations using simple apps and posting them to Tik Tok without ever considering the ethics.
I'm enjoying "Bitch," the new Lizzo album. It isn't charting well, but it's pretty decent - don't overlook it!
I just read ad copy for a famous restaurant in a high quality magazine and part of it read: "Not X. Not Y. Just Z." It's my least favorite AI construct, but rather than being ceremonious about pointing it out or flying into a rage, I'm just trying to accept that in the real world it's a new normal.
When loud people warn that the things you say risk "diluting the message," especially "at a critical time," you're probably on to something both important and good. Nuance is not an enemy.
